Publisher's Synopsis
In this new age of globalisation, the world is increasingly being drawn into new kinds of wars which are far removed from nuclear weapons and mass destruction. These wars have to do with ecology and the ethical limits to profit the enemies are coercive free trade treaties technologies of production based on violence genetic engineering and nano technologies. Seed wars or the control of foodgrains are being fought through Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which impose new property rights over seeds thus taking them beyond the reach of farmers. Water monopolies sought by multinationals like Coke and Pepsi deny people access to water both by carving out private property within public water range and by privatising public services increasing the cost of water by 200 or 300 percent. Sharing and exchanging biodiversity and its knowledge often gets converted to piracy through process patents by individuals or organisations who freely appropriate biodiversity knowledge or practice from indigenous communities. This major work forcefully establishes the relationship between globalisation as an economic war and militarism and fundamentalisms as political and cultural wars in the project of global hegemony.
